Stories Behind the Traditions and Songs of Easter

STORIES BEHIND THE

TRADITIONS

AND SONGS

of

EASTER

Other Books by Ace Collins

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Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

Special thanks to:

Bill Gaither

John Hillman

Kathy Collins

Angela Scheff

Steve Morse

ZONDERVAN

Stories Behind the Traditions and Songs of Easter

Copyright © 2007 by Andrew Collins

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-54226-1

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Collins, Ace.

Stories behind the traditions and songs of Easter / Ace Collins.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26315-9

1. Easter. 2. Public worship. 3. Easter music — History and criticism. 4.

Hymns—History and criticism. I. Title.

BV55.C64 2007

263'.93 — dc22

2006025105

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy Bible:King James Version.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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To

Rick Beals

for giving his life to the cause of sharing

the message of the resurrection with the world

CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction: The History of the Easter Celebration

1. All Glory, Laud, and Honor

2. Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed (At the Cross?)

3. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

4. The History of Lent

5. Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

6. Were You There

7. Jesus Paid It All

8. The History of Passion Plays

9. Near the Cross

10. I Gave My Life for Thee

11. Hallelujah! Christ Is Risen

12. The Tradition of Sunrise Services

13. Beneath the Cross of Jesus

14. Crown Him with Many Crowns

15. Christ Arose (Lo, in the Grave He Lay)

16. The Tradition of Easter Parades

17. At Calvary

18. Blessed Redeemer

19. One Day

20. The Custom of Dressing Up for Easter

21. The Old Rugged Cross

22. Living for Jesus

23. The History of the Easter Egg

24. Lead Me to Calvary

25. He Lives!

26. The History of the Easter Bunny

27. Because He Lives

28. Ten Thousand Angels Cried

About the Publisher

Share Your Thoughts

INTRODUCTION: The History of the Easter Celebration

The four gospels not only record the events of what is now known as the first Easter but also bring insight into the emotional impact of those events on the followers of Christ. From the initial sadness brought on by his death on the cross, to the disbelief about his return to life, to the jubilation that came with the acceptance of his resurrection, the first Easter was one those who witnessed it would never forget. Yet strangely, even though the events of that time were recorded in detail by four different biblical authors, none of these men set down the date when it happened.

There can be little doubt that for at least the next two or three decades Easter was observed by those who witnessed the events in Jerusalem. They probably worshiped and gave thanks on the anniversaries of the crucifixion and resurrection. Yet there are no records of what those worship services were like. What can be gleaned from history is that many who first accepted Christ as Savior were persecuted, and so they would have kept their celebrations hidden. Those early Christians who were able to worship freely were probably more intent on living a Christ-like life. To these believers, Jesus’ death and resurrection were remembered daily and were part of every facet of their worship.

As Christianity spread and the events of Christ’s life on earth became more distant, believers began to mark certain days as important moments in church history. Because Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith, it is only natural that early believers would set aside a time to remember Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and to reflect on what they meant to them both as individuals and as a body of believers. Irenaeus of Lyon wrote in the second century that Christians often fasted between sundown on a specified Friday until sunrise on the following Sunday. Though no name was ascribed to this tradition, this is probably the earliest historical record of what is now known as Easter. What Irenaeus observed was probably not a solitary tradition established by a particular group of Christians he knew but rather one that was echoed throughout the now far-flung Christian community.

While no clearly established moment in time can be ascertained, reports from Irenaeus and other historians seem to show that Easter has been celebrated longer than any other Christian holiday. But since there was no date marked in the Bible, the weekend set aside to memorialize this special moment in history was not universal. Most early churches chose springtime because of the connection with Passover. Some even called the Easter weekend the Days of Pascha, meaning Passover. Yet no one, not Paul, Timothy, nor any of their followers, would have called it Easter. In fact, the word Easter cannot be found in the Bible, and the term’s roots are most likely anchored anywhere but in holy ground.

At about the same time that Irenaeus wrote of Christians marking Christ’s death and resurrection, missionaries began to travel out of the Holy Land, Rome, and Greece into Northern Europe. As these early pioneers of the Great Commission converted members of the Teutonic tribes, they were confronted by long-held traditions that were opposed to the values of the Christian faith. To these men of God, these old customs offered a real challenge. Going back centuries, the ritual celebrations were deeply ingrained in the culture of these new believers. Yet they also were meant to honor some of the myriad pagan gods that these people had worshiped. The missionaries knew that if they forbade all established celebrations, they might face a revolt that would cripple their ministry. These godly men also recognized that these poor people needed celebrations to bring joy to their often bleak lives. So the missionaries worked out a compromise that would ultimately become a part of the way Christ’s resurrection would be celebrated around the world.

To those living in the British Isles and Northern Europe, winter was a trying time. The days were long and cold. Each year, due to frigid temperatures, lack of food, and rampant disease, many died during this season. So when the snow and dark days gave way to flowers and warmer weather, these people believed it was a time for celebration dedicated to the gods or goddesses of spring, fertility, and the rising sun. In some of these Teutonic cultures, a month-long holiday was declared because the goddess Eostre (one of many spring gods and goddesses) had again brought the warm days of spring. Because of this goddess, every person had new life and hope. Knowing they would be unable to stop the actual pagan spring custom, the missionaries simply converted the holiday as they converted the men and women. Thus, the celebration of Eostre became Easter, and the new life celebrated was no longer a gift of pagan gods but rather a natural transformation to the rebirth guaranteed to Christians through Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.

As missionaries spread the Good News across Europe and Asia, they discovered similar pagan gods that legend claimed were at least in part responsible for the new life that appeared each spring. The Phoenicians had Astarte, which as it crossed throughout Europe had morphed into Astarte and Ostara. As they had in Northern Europe, missionaries continued to use the customs of the people’s history as a basis for the resurrection celebration. Thus the name Easter, likely derived from the name of the Teutonic pagan goddess, became the most common term for this new holiday.

Although millions of Christians now recognized it, there was still no set date for this special weekend. Thus for more than three centuries, Easter Sunday was celebrated at scores of different times depending on when the warm winds of spring began to blow or when the Jewish Passover was celebrated.

In 325, the leaders of a now tightly organized church felt the Christian calendar needed structure. Without set dates, it was hard to control the manner in which believers celebrated the various holidays. So the church hierarchy met in what is now known as the Council of Nicaea. At this meeting the leaders decided on certain edicts and gave their report to Emperor Constantine. Since Constantine was now a Christian and the world’s most powerful ruler, the council knew his decrees would carry great weight with the Christian population. Two of the leader’s pronouncements announced the setting of official dates for Christmas and Easter.

Christmas Day was set as December 25. Since this was the time when Roman cultures already celebrated the winter solstice, this date was chosen in an attempt to put a religious spin on the ancient holiday.

But Easter was more of a challenge. Since at least part of the church celebrated Easter in conjunction with Passover, it was deemed that this connection should be continued. Since Passover was observed in the spring, this would also connect with the times many other Christian groups celebrated Easter. Yet as Passover moved from year to year in conjunction with the cycle of the moon, the council did not feel it could set aside one spring weekend for Easter. Instead, they opted to embrace a date based on Jewish customs. Thus Easter became a mobile holiday.

The new law stated that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The full moon in the council’s ruling was the ecclesiastical full moon, which was defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation. Therefore, Easter would be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

In Constantine’s day, many depended on the cycles of the moon to determine when to plant, herd, and even travel. Additionally, Jews had been using this lunar system for centuries to determine when to mark Passover. So in the fourth century, figuring when Easter would fall each year was something most clergymen, farmers, shepherds, and tradesmen considered an elementary equation. Today, in a world in which few note the moon’s cycles, this moving of Easter causes many Christians great confusion.

After 325, most of the world celebrated Christ’s resurrection on the same day. It was also now universally recognized by the name Easter. Except for the addition of specific customs, few things changed about the holiday until the Reformation, when some of the new Protestant denominations attempted to erase all Christian holidays. They felt that both Christmas and Easter contained more pagan elements than spiritual values. Hence in nations such as England and America, Easter was rarely mentioned by the press or celebrated by most Protestant churches. In 1840, Queen Victoria married Germany’s Prince Albert, and the royal family, using long-held German customs, restored the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter in England. Americans soon followed this lead. By the last half of the nineteenth century, Easter had become an important holiday weekend throughout the Christian world.

Unlike Christmas, Easter is not universally celebrated, nor has it been so deeply commercialized. The fact that it is a weekend that begins by remembering an innocent man’s gruesome execution undoubtedly had something to do with it. And unlike at Christmas, gift-giving has no spiritual connection to the historical events of the first Easter. What probably has kept the heart of this celebration so focused on the spiritual rather than the commercial is the edict that deemed that Easter would not be set on a specific day. Because Easter moves each year, commercial connections cannot be as easily cemented as they can at Christmas. Therefore there is no specific Easter shopping period, no annual countdown of the days until Easter Sunday, and no real anchor that gives businesses the wedge they need to fully exploit this initially solemn but ultimately joyful occasion. Hence, even though its name is likely based on a long-forgotten pagan goddess, this oldest Christian holiday is also probably the purest and most spiritual. Each year Easter welcomes spring, new life, and new hope. More than decorated eggs or little bunnies is at the heart of the holiday’s message. On Easter, we remember what the world was given when the first believers rolled back the stone and discovered that Christ lives!

1 All Glory, Laud, and Honor

Easter music was being written more than a thousand years ago. Even in the early church, monks composed scripturally based songs for use during the forty days of Lent and the Easter weekend. Though few of these early efforts have survived, there can be little doubt the ancient praise anthems offered great inspiration to the worshipers of their day.

Written around 820, All Glory, Laud, and Honor is probably the oldest Easter hymn still commonly sung by Christians. Because of its